Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This movie shows about 2 minutes of recreations of dinosaurs actually being alive. My son, who loves dinosaurs, thought the movie was OK, at best. 95% of the 40 minute movie includes shots of deserts and badlands from the air or boring, staged interviews with scientists. Calling the film "Dinosaurs Alive" is misleading, to say the least. For me, it was the worst IMAX movie I've ever seen and hardly deserves to be even put on the screen.We saw it at the Chabot Science Center in Oakland and it cost the two of us $25. Luckily that included entrance to the center which helped improve the experience (a bit - but that's for another review).

I think every young boy goes through the stage of dinosaur obsession at some point. I certainly did and my two boys can't get enough of them either. So along comes "Dinosaurs Alive! 3D." Now this should be a summer holiday winner - it's got dinosaurs...perfect. They are presented alive...tick that box. AND it's in 3D...should be awesome!! What could go wrong? Everything.Firstly the Dinosaurs. A more appropriate title for this would be Palaeontologists Alive! This IMAX film spends way too much time following the exciting exploits of a couple of grad students travelling to deserts and digging holes. Sure, there are a few spots where we see some dinos - often just walking on the spot as some sort of graphic. But if you want wall to wall dinosaurs forget it. This is just a documentary mainly pitched at adults...and quite a boring one too.Now for the "Alive!". Nah. They're dead. Really dead. Fossil dead. We see fossils. Lots of them. It's about finding fossils it the desert. Again we get a bit of dinosaur action here and there, but even that's to illustrate how they died. Putting the word Alive (with an exclamation mark if you don't mind) in the title is a bit rich.And the 3D. The 3D effects are good as they always are at IMAX. There were a couple of good T-Rex roaring in your face moments and one bit had me jumping in my seat. But mainly the 3D is used to show titles, footage from the 20s in front of a desert, and how a palaeontologist uses a little brush to find a fossil. At one point is shows how far apart 5 palaeontologists sit from each other. Basically, there is no real point for this to be 3D. At one point one of my boys took the glasses off. I told him to put them back on. He replied "What for?" Enough said.So, if your kid has a dinosaur obsession take him to this...if you want to stop it. This film engages in everything boring about dinosaurs. It's a stinker. Use your hard earned money to hire Jurassic Park or, if you want a doco, Walking With Dinosaurs. You'd probably go better with Land Before Time in fact. This just isn't worth it.

I've recently taken my two sons to see this at my local science center, and all of us were very disappointed with Dinosaurs Alive! This very dry documentary mainly focuses on archaeologists in 1920s Mongolia and modern day New Mexico. CG dino scenes were not only sparse and short (why call this film Dinosaurs Alive if you're not going to focus on them?), but the special effects were poor. I've seen effects on Discovery Channel specials and cheaply-done Sci-Fi network movies that far exceeded what was in this movie. Come to think of it, I would have rather watched the Discovery Channel's "Walking with Dinosaurs" on my TV than this big screen snooze.Occasionally there was a beautiful, panoramic shot of some cliffs or a desert vista; but other than this there wasn't much redeeming about this film. If it's still playing at an IMAX theater near you, go see something else.

This movie is pretty good for kids and especially in 3D which is how we saw it. There is a lot of science but my two boys are now spending time on 'digs' in our yard. Thedinosaur fight scenes are great and the dinosaurs aren't too scary but are still very realistic. I've seen quite a few IMAX movies and this one is one of the better ones. My boys would say the best one. 3D is getting better with new technology and this movie proves that it has come a long way. Michael Douglas is OK with the narration. If you are a parent or teacher, I recommend this dinosaur movie, but see it in the theater because it works best to see the dinosaurs IMAX size(or close to it). Eight collective thumbs up from my family of four.